One of the operations in the slaughtering of animals is to remove the hide from the carcass. This may be accomplished by manually stripping or skinning the animal carcass or by power driven hide-pulling machines. Such machines are positioned at a work station along the path which the animal carcasses travel during movement of an animal carcass between work stations. Normally, the animal carcass is suspended from an overhead track or rail with the head disposed downwardly and the rear legs fastened to trolleys movable along the track. Thus, the animal carcasses are suspended from an overhead conveyer and movable by the conveyer between work stations.
Hide pullers are employed to pull or strip hide from an animal carcass. Such pullers may take the form of an up puller or a down puller, and they also may strip all or part of the hide from the animal during their hidestripping operation. One common type of up puller is disposed between the hide and the back of an animal and then subjected to upward movement to strip the hide from about the middle of the back to the ends of the rear legs. This type of puller is referred to as an up puller and accomplishes partial stripping of the hide from the animal. While of no particular consequence herein, the remainder of the hide may be stripped by a down hide-pulling operation at a subsequent work station.
One up-pulling system first requires a loosening of the skin at the back of the animal so that the puller can be inserted between the skin and the animal. This puller is defined as a banana bar up puller which, when completing its operation, leaves the hide still attached at the lower end of the body or the head end of the body. In order to make the banana bar up puller effective, it is necessary to anchor the lower end of the animal carcass. This is commonly done by attaching chains to the front legs and which are suitably anchored to the floor or any other type of suitable structure, as seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,454. Connection or attachment of the chains to the animal carcass requires two operators in order to obtain any acceptable production, one to connect a chain to one of the forelegs and the other to connect a chain to the other of the forelegs. Another device for anchoring the lower end of a carcass grips the front legs with suitable jaws, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,392,274, this device also requiring the manipulation of both front legs.